Men aren't afraid when they walk through a dark parking lot.
And the odd thing about that is that statiscally, men are much, much, much, much more likely to get mugged. I forget the stats off the top of my head, but it was in the region of four to six times more likely to be violently attacked. Men, however are much less afraid of physical violence than women, because they are taught to fight back, to get angry, to get even from childhood. If you knock a man down with a brick and steal his wallet, his reaction tends to be anger, rather than fear.
The other interesting side to this is that what men do fear is being *perceived* as a rapist. Male teachers will not remain alone in classrooms with students (male teachers have left the school system almost entirely), male nurses tend to have different, unobtrusively supervised duties, male joggers are avoiding places where they could be alone with females at night on a deserted path, male doctors have nurses/reception staff around at all times, male bosses leave the doors open during meetings.
The life wrecking allegation of sexual misconduct is putting fear into the hearts of men like they've never felt before, and it's such an interesting, frustrating example of gender politics. Men have no fear for their bodies, but threaten their livelihood, reputation and ego and they start quivering in their boots.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2004-02-13 01:38 am (UTC)And the odd thing about that is that statiscally, men are much, much, much, much more likely to get mugged. I forget the stats off the top of my head, but it was in the region of four to six times more likely to be violently attacked. Men, however are much less afraid of physical violence than women, because they are taught to fight back, to get angry, to get even from childhood. If you knock a man down with a brick and steal his wallet, his reaction tends to be anger, rather than fear.
The other interesting side to this is that what men do fear is being *perceived* as a rapist. Male teachers will not remain alone in classrooms with students (male teachers have left the school system almost entirely), male nurses tend to have different, unobtrusively supervised duties, male joggers are avoiding places where they could be alone with females at night on a deserted path, male doctors have nurses/reception staff around at all times, male bosses leave the doors open during meetings.
The life wrecking allegation of sexual misconduct is putting fear into the hearts of men like they've never felt before, and it's such an interesting, frustrating example of gender politics. Men have no fear for their bodies, but threaten their livelihood, reputation and ego and they start quivering in their boots.